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During this eventful first month as Director of Content here at FreePint, I have focused much of my attention on getting to know the team and our readers. It is a testament to the quality of the FreePint editorial staff that in almost every chat, our editors and frequent contributors asked if we could provide them with reader feedback more often. Then, when I was discussing some of the insights I've gained so far through these conversations with FreePint's Publisher William Hann, and Director of Research Robin Neidorf, William expressed a desire for the holy grail of knowledge, asking if we couldn't create a way to capture customer interactions and share them in real time so that everyone could benefit from anyone's ad hoc customer contact.

We certainly try to provide myriad ways for you to provide to feedback here at FreePint – from reader surveys to making every team member's contact information readily available. (Please, feel free to email me or drop a note into our suggestion box at any time!) These interactions are, without a doubt, what keep our content in line with the needs of our readers. In fact, we are particularly interested in your thoughts on the relationship between end users and information professionals, so we encourage you to participate in our survey on the subject and look forward to sharing some of the insights we gain with you.

This interaction between clients and end users, between info pro and an organisation's mission and its employees is explored in Embedded librarianship part 1: Aligning with organisational strategy to transform information into knowledge, which is in the current issue of FUMSI. As with my own explorations into the goals and perceptions of FreePint staff, leadership, and our end users, the writers suggest that information professionals must investigate how to position themselves and their services at a strategic intersection between an organisations' mission and information users in order to fuel staff with essential information to help achieve immediate and long term objectives.

However, as the article points out, the real challenge – and opportunity – is in converting information into knowledge. Ah, what alchemy is this? As William suggested to Robin and me, creating a mechanism for capturing and sharing customer information takes it out of silos or rarefied review meetings and makes it something we can apply to the common good: the good of our readers, which in turn is for the good of our company. The trick, of course, is providing the right amount and quality of information that informs decision-making rather than (dare we say it) adding to info glut. When it comes to information, we all need lean powerful sources that drive action and this involves rigorous exploration, and hopefully true understanding, about the role information plays in getting us where our businesses need to go.

I read a lot of material in monitoring the publishing, library and technology communities. I share perhaps 10% of what I read within my network. That process can't be allowed to take up the entire day so these are the bookmarklets compatible with my Chrome Browser that facilitate my activities as a human filter.

Delicious: Even though Yahoo! recently revealed its desire to sell off social bookmarking site, Delicious, I still depend on its dual set of functionalities. Bookmark on Delicious and My Delicious allow me to save useful web content, either privately or publicly and navigate quickly to the content I've stored with the service.

Bit.ly: The Bit.ly tool makes it easy to shorten a particular URL for inclusion in a tweet or email and the analytics operating behind the shortened URL let me know whether anyone has had sufficient interest to click through.

Print Friendly: Strip extraneous elements and print just the text on a page. The bookmarklet causes the system to generate a printable page or a PDF for purposes of sharing a physical set of pages.

kwout: Screenshots in presentations are an effective means of sharing. Kwout's tool captures, crops, emails, and embeds the precise image needed for purposes of showing rather than telling.

Jill O'Neill is the Director of Planning & Communication at NFAIS (National Federation of Advanced Information Services), an international membership organisation that draws from the publishing, technology and library communities. Her focus is on the emergence of Web-based applications for the creation, discovery and dissemination of content and the potential value of those tools to the global information community.

Would you like to add your Favourite Tipples suggestions for the FreePint Newsletter or write an article for FUMSI (Find, Use, Manage or Share Information?).

On the train into New York City to attend the Information Industry Summit (IIS) last week, I noted a row of travellers using: a Nook, a Kindle and an iPad. At different times during the trip, all three had at least one other device out and running at the same time. On the trip home, the train was abuzz with the usual trilling, tapping and talking on mobile phones. Notably, two women across the aisle each had an iPad and were furiously collaborating on something (work or entertainment I could not say ... though the distinction is increasingly blurred, I suppose). Mind you, this is all without the benefit of wifi as New York commuter rail doesn't yet offer it...Read posting online »

Embedded librarianship is taking hold in many organisations providing information professionals with the chance to show the value they can add by transforming information into knowledge through strategic alignment. In Part 1 of a two-part series on embedded librarianship, Reece Dano and Gretchen McNeely describe the embedded services workflow and show the benefits, for both the organisation and the information professional, of this way of working.

WHAT'S INSIDE: 'Embedded services take place in a wide variety of organisations. However, the process of responding to requests and providing deliverables within any context harbours a fairly predictable workflow, despite the always-changing milieu of the embedded librarian. The six steps that apply to the embedded services workflow are: understand the context; understand the 'who'; align with strategies; discover the gaps; convert information into knowledge; maintain and integrate.'

Patents are of great interest to those involved in competitor intelligence and new products as they provide a wealth of information about companies, markets and people. So the tips in this basic introduction to patent searching, by Martin Goffman and Ron Kaminecki, will help to take away the mystique of the world of patents and add another source of information to explore.

WHAT'S INSIDE: 'The patent office will examine the application for usefulness, novelty and non-obviousness and will award a patent if it meets these criteria. Patents are quite often short and describe the background of the subject area, the older related patents and publications and data about the invention. So, patents are of interest to individuals in competitive intelligence, new products or technology surveys because of this wealth of information. A relatively unknown source of information lies with the various vendors of patent databases as their websites quite often contain the most asked questions about patent searching.'

Issues of time and trust sprung to mind as I read through the product reviews of this month's VIP. Company document databases have been the backbone of most corporate Information Centres for a good 15 years, having replaced endless shelves of hard copy company documents. In this issue, Jan Knight reviews PI Navigator and looks at what one of these databases is doing now to maintain it's relevance in the world of corporate information. Already familiar (and happy with) PI's Filings database, the question for me was: Do we need another one? With public company documents often freely and easily available via the internet, are we still paying for storage and easy retrieval or has the bar been raised?

PI claims to have developed this database to revolutionise the workflow of corporate finance teams by saving 40% of their time when modeling companies. This is a big claim. As information professionals in a corporate environment, we can sometimes labour along the "value added" road, so when a vendor suggests they can help us and our users along the way I'd say it was worth taking a look. We are in the unique position to see if a product can enhance workflow. We know what types of information we are asked to provide and how it is used. In times of budget cuts and the rationalising of sources product evolution is key. The more we can do with the sources we have, the better. Time is time.

Also in this issue, Perrin Kerravala takes a look at PitchBook, a private equity deals database that analyses private equity transactions from announcement to final exit. Again, they are not the first vendor to do this so the major factor here is whether they are doing this differently. There is a wealth of information on private equity from disparate sources available for us to wade around and possibly drown in. At best it can be murky. Perrin shows how PitchBook combines data from public sources and its own primary research, adding a healthy dose of quality assurance to ensure the integrity of it's data. Trust is trust.

PitchBook is certainly covering a lot of ground; deals, companies, investors, funds, service providers, but with private equity there's a lot of ground to be covered. The database and search functionality is aimed at all levels, from junior to general partner, who will all come with different amounts of trust and time to both databases and information professionals. Increasingly users like to take a look themselves. Databases that can cater for differing levels of users are welcome especially if it's possible to customise the interface to suit your level and avoid overload. The search is entirely menu driven and PitchBook uses plain language to describe the fields in its search menus. I particularly like the sound of that, it can only help all of us. The same goes for the systematic reviews and refinements to ensure the quality of data. I thought I already had a source for this but that's what I thought about company documents.

The rise and rise of free information
Even though purse strings are still tightly drawn, and information managers face tough decisions about what content is no longer worth the investment, new figures from Outsell show that information prices are on the up again. But the results of FreePint surveys throughout 2010 suggest that publishers may find this an increasingly risky strategy...Read posting online »

LexisNexis introduces eBooks
One last mention of eBooks to close out the year... in late November LexisNexis UK announced the launch of 13 titles in eBook format. As first reported by InPublishing, the launch of the LexisNexis eBooks site coincides with a recent survey undertaken by Jures on behalf of LexisNexis that showed 77% of respondents favoured digital over 'traditional paper-based libraries'...Read posting online »

Evidence-based Sustainability Source
Working on a sustainability project? Tasked with some research? Confused about where to find the latest sustainability thinking? EBSCO's Sustainability Watch, included in VIP Magazine Number 85, provides current, objective, high quality reports on sustainability topics. All reports are grounded in the latest research, and compiled using EBSCO's unique methodology to ensure a balanced and objective briefing. Sources include 15,000 academic journals, business journals and trade press boiled down into digestible report from...Read posting online »

'Delicious' leaves a bad taste
It seems that the rumours are true and that the social bookmarking site Delicious is to close, or perhaps just change. Whilst generally being regarded as a good product (by users) Yahoo! do not find it a 'strategic fit' for them and are seeking a life outside the organisation - i.e. they are looking to sell it...Read posting online »

Xing moves into events
LinkedIn's largest European rival, German business networking site Xing is branching out into another strand of the professional networking space. Paidcontent reported a couple of weeks ago that Xing had acquired event registration and ticketing service Amiando. This move will provide more competition to LinkedIn's events offering, which sources listings from organisations such as Eventbrite and TechwebRead posting online »

Always feel free to comment on any item on the LiveWire, and if you do not yet have a free subscription to the VIP Wires Weekly, you can sign up now »

Springer eBooks now also available in the Google eBookstore
Existing eRetail partners include Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, among others.
Springer eBooks can now also be purchased via Google's eBookstore. Google currently holds the biggest collection of Springer eBooks with more than 52,000 books, which is a combination of physically scanned books published prior to 2006 and PDF file submissions since 2006. Springer adds 4,000 newly published titles per year...Read Press Release online »

Credo expands Wiley-Blackwell Psychology Collection
Oxford and Boston, 11th February 2011 - Credo Reference, the award-winning online reference service, has signed an agreement to expand their Wiley-Blackwell Psychology Collection. The Publisher Collection, which now contains seventeen titles, including the recently published Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology (Fourth Edition), is available for perpetual purchase or annual subscription on the acclaimed Credo Reference platform...Read Press Release online »

Jinfo is the central location for supporting your information career. The Jinfo Jobs database lists vacancies, and the Jinfo Events database lists workshops, conferences, training, webinars and other professional development opportunities.

Start a free subscription to receive the weekly Jinfo Update, with a complete list of the latest vacancies and events, or search the databases at any time (free).

Jinfo Jobs in the FreePint Newsletter are supported through our partnership with Quantum2, an innovative skills development programme offered by Dialog. Learn more at <http://quantum.dialog.com/>.

Jinfo Jobs:

Here is a selection of the latest featured vacancies in the Jinfo database:

ResearcherBrilliant chance to put 2yrs+ corporate research exp to use working closely with consultants, life sci/tech exp good...
Recruiter: Fabric Recruitment
Country: United Kingdom

Information ManagerWe are offering a rare opportunity for an experienced Information Professional to take on a...
Recruiter: TFPL Intelligent Resources
Country: United Kingdom

Knowledge Co-ordinator - North West LondonKnowledge Coordinator role for an information specialist with outstanding writing and communication skills and strong business acumen. Excellent prospects.
Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
Country: United Kingdom

Systems AdministratorWorking with the Information Governance Manager, you will support the delivery of the Trust wide Active Navigation project to improve...
Recruiter: The Wellcome Trust
Country: United Kingdom

FreePint No. 154, 19th February 2004 "Electronic Information for Occupational Safety and Health - Challenges for the Information Professional" and "Legal Issues For Information Professionals. How UK Copyright Law Has Changed With The EU Directive"

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